Running from the Law

TUTORIAL - Chaos Bases

noreply@blogger.com (dvdhwk) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 23:00:00 +0000

One fateful day, about two years ago, I picked up the recent copy of White Dwarf. In that issue was an article about creating Chaos World tables and terrain. The Tzeentch table used wallpaper to cover the table instead of grass or sand. It looked like a cracked surface with blue warp energy emerging from below. I was sold. Having previously decided to do all four cults (Thousand Sons, World Eaters, Death Guard and Emperor's Children) along with the Black legion, I decided that I would use this wallpaper on all of my Chaos bases.

This has been a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing because it keeps me from having to apply sand and static grass to my bases. It also creates a very effective yet easy look, that stands out from a lot of conventional bases.

It's a curse because it provides a weak joint between the model and the bases (the paper just rips sometimes) and because painting in the highlights on the warp energy take longer than merely doing a fast drybrush on a textured base.

But I made the decision, and overall I'm happy with it. I usually get a lot of compliments on the bases, and always seem to shock people when I tell them that it's just wallpaper. As you can see in the above picture, it works for all the different flavors of chaos. I've also used mixed armys (most notable some EC and BL), and there is enough consistency in the style and the rocky surface that the different colors of warp energy don't seem to clash.

The other day someone I met at Hat's Games wanted to do the bases for his Eldar. I had previously shown him some of the other examples on the blog. He came here for a tutorial on how to do it, and low and behold, there was none. Ironically, it was one of the first tutorials I had planned on doing when I first started I just never got around to it (in fact I mentioned wanting to to the tutorial back on April 9, 2008 in the post about my Death Guard).

So here it is... how to do Chaos bases, RFTL style.

Preparation

I usually start by grabbing a bunch of bases at once. I then rip off a large section of the wallpaper. I'm not concerned about conserving it, because I haven't even come close to making a dent in it after some 300+ bases plus a large display board.

Applying Superglue

Kind of hard to tell from this picture, but you just want a bit of superglue in the center of the base. I tried different methods, most notable where I would even spread a very thin layer of glue over the surface of the base. But now I just put it in the center. It takes a little to figure out the right amount. Not the end of the world if you use to much, but don't let it happen too often.

Gluing the Bases to the Wallpaper

You then place the wallpaper upside down and press the base down firmly. Check to see how much glue seeps out the sides. If there's a lot then you're applying too much (makes it difficult to cut the paper). Ideally you want to see just a little bit of moisture at the edges. If there's not enough then the edges will stick up, which you have to go back and glue later.

Cutting the Bases

After they've had 10-15 minutes to dry I start by cutting them in separate, manageable pieces using a scissor. Next I cut them out, trying to get the edge of the wallpaper as flush to the edge of the base as possible. I used to use an exacto, but have been happier with a pair of sharp scissors with a thin blade.

Once they're done, you just glue the model to the paper and prime it up. For metal models with a slot base you have 2 options:
Option 1: Put the model in the slot before the wallpaper. Then cut a piece of wallpaper so that there is a hole for models feet and a center cut so it comes together like to halves. This is a lot of work.
Option 2: Cut off the slot, and pin the model to the base after the wallpaper has been applied. I think this turns out to be easier, especially if you have a dremel.

Painting the Rocks

Step 1: Over a black base do a heavy drybrush of German Grey (GG is a vallejo paint, I highly reccommend getting it and the other Vallejo colors I reccommend here - alternatively mix 1:1 - Chaos Black:Codex Grey).
Step 2: Drybrush Dark Grey (Codex Grey)
Step 3: Finally do a light drybrush of Neutral Grey (Fortress Grey)

Painting the Warp Energy

Well this is up to you, depending on what effect you want. For the Sons of Sek, they have red bases because the worship Khorne (blood for the blood god, and whatnot).
The contrast between the colors looks better in person than in these pics, but I think you get the idea. So for Khorne bases I do the following:
Step 1: Mechrite Red
Step 2: Highlight of Blood Red
Step 3: Finer Highlight of 1:1 - Blood Red:Blazing Orange
Step 4: For those bases with a larger area of energy I'll do a final thin line of Blazing Orange

Really you could do just about whatever. The guy I mentioned earlier from Hat's Games, want to do them as water. I never thought of that, great idea. I reccommended that after he sealed the model to use gloss varnish on the water channels. Looking forward to seeing them finished. Maybe in the future I'll have to steal the idea from him, that he stole from me, that I stole from White Dwarf (somehow that reminds me of Krusty the Clown).

Well, that's it for now. 21 Sons of Sek to go, plus the display board. I'm trying to take pictures as I go along, but its hard when I'm trying to hurry everything.

Classes Begin - Sons of Sek Are Competing for Attention

noreply@blogger.com (dvdhwk) — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 17:30:00 +0000

School Pressure
School started on Monday, and that has changed everything! There's a saying in law school: First year, they scare you to death; second year, they work you to death; third year, they bore you to death. First year: check. Done and over with. This second year the work comes in the form of the substantial paper, that everyone has to write. For me this substantial paper is part of my membership on the Arizona Journal of International and Comparative Law. Being on journal also means that I have regular assignments of editing and copy work. I've already had some assignments due over the summer, this week and next. Don't these people know I have a 40k army to complete.

So needless to say my time has quickly evaporated. I don't have entire days to devote to building and painting, and the GT is quickly approaching. I have 45 models left to build and paint, and I'm feeling the strain. I have class everyday at 8am, and end around 10 or 12. Then I have reading for the next day and Journal work. By the time I get home, make dinner and spend time with the wife, I don't really start working on the Sons of Sek until 7pm. I try to work until midnight or 1am. Ultimately I'm not getting much work done.

I figured out last night that it takes between 15-17 hours to finish 10 men (7 hours to build [yes, 7 hours!] and 8-10 hours to paint. That means I need to come up with 60-68 hours to finish the Sons and still try to build and paint a display board. This will be tight.

Today my entire afternoon and evening can be devoted to the Sons, and I'm planning on working hard through the entire three day weekend, much to my wife's annoyance, who wants to take a day trip.

Practice Games
Last weekend, Anthony drove down from Phoenix and we played 6 games of 40k over a day and a half. We took turns playing our armies against Epidimius Cheese, all Nurgle CSM and Nidzilla. What we took away from the games is that 5th edition has definitely toned down drop guard. They're no longer nearly as powerful as they were in 4th. Which is good, they needed the nerf. It will definitely make games more challenging. This nerf comes from a combination of improved cover saves for everybody, ability for opponent to always keep things in reserve, and annhilation missions to name a few. No doubt 5th made some changes that benefited the drop guard, like not being able to consolidate into the enemy, always deep striking, etc.

Display Board
I had originally planned to have an entire week to work on the display board. Now it looks like I will have one day. In the past I have constructed a frame from light lumber and have covered the entire surface with the wallpaper I used on my bases. For issues of time, this won't work.

I think given my time, I'm going to look into building a board into a wooden poster frame. In addition I will not be using much of the wallpaper, since painting the red energy takes quite a bit of time (last GT I had an army of 8th graders paint the energy).

Here's what I'm thinking:

The gray sections will be pieces of foam core raised off the "lava" of the main board. They will be covered in sand painted gray like my bases. They will also have random pieces of the wallpaper mixed in with the sand. This will tie it to my army's bases, while keeping the work time down. Maybe it will give them impression that when the Sons make planetfall, warp energy starts to break through the surface and change the planet. Sure, why not? I also might add some kind of ruined building on the section reserved for the command squad. We'll see, time permitting.

The board will have some depth to it, it will tie into my army, and it will be relatively quick to do. Any ideas for what I should use to form the backing of the poster frame, that will essentially serve as the base for the whole board? Really the only metal in the army is the sentinels, so I think the army is still relatively light despite the fact that it's 169 models.

Transporting the Sons of Sek
I have the boys in a Sabol Army Transport. My plan is to take them with me as a carry-on item on the flight. Anyone had experience getting armies through TSA security? Anything I should be aware of. I've done a good job of protecting them in the army transport, but would really prefer not to check them.

Well, that's it for now. As soon as class is over today, I have about an hour's worth of work left on the last 5 models of 2nd Platoon, and then I will get a jump on 3rd platoon. Crunch time is here.

Sons of Sek - Command Bodyguards & T-Shirt Has Arrived

noreply@blogger.com (dvdhwk) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 01:46:00 +0000

Here are the extra bodyguard for my 4 command squads. These guys have been done for a while, just haven't put them up yet.

The standard bearers and the officers complete the command squads. I decided that it would make sense to give the bodyguard shields, which has no in-game benefit. But I think it really makes them stick out from the veterans (Part I | Part II), who are also based off the chaos warrior models.

The top squad is given red shields, which matches the red cape worn by the Heroic Senior Officer (Chief Sirdar Seram). The squad also contains a master vox. In order for it to be positioned that way, I had to cut off all of the speakers and aerials, and turn them around. I also added some guitar cabling to make a longer aerial, signifying that it is the "master" vox. The bodyguard are armed with lasguns.

The other squads have black shields which match the capes of the other officers. One of the squads is armed with lasguns (they're designed to be back up leadership support, and also possibly grab an objective in my backfield). The other 2 squads have meltas and plasmas. This was a late change in the list, I decided I wanted some more firepower, and took these extra special weapons at the expense of the Sharpshooters Doctrine on the infantry squads.

Sons of Sek - Special Weapons Teams & Final T-Shirt Design

noreply@blogger.com (dvdhwk) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 20:41:00 +0000

Last night I finished the final 6 body guard for my command squads, which leaves only 80 models of 2nd and 3rd platoon left. Later this week I'll post pics of the body guard.

Here's one of the two special weapons squads:

They're armed with 2x Flamers and 1x Demo charge.

The Demo Charge was made from some pieces from the IG Heavy Weapon sprue (I think they belong to the auto cannon). Each half normally glues on either side of the weapon. I made some key cuts and made them sit flush to each other. I then took an arm that was throwing a grenade. I cut out the grenade and put the handle in.

The rules for the demo charge require you to substitute the model for a normal lasgunner after he throws the demo charge. Not wanting to paint another model, I decided to instead paint an extra arm and magnetize them all:

So far in the 2 games I've played with the demo charges they've missed completely. Oh well.

I also sent away for my T-Shirt for tournament. Thanks all who voted. I actually liked the brown myself, and so did one other person. But the maroon is on the way. Here's a pic of the final design:

Las Vegas Grand Tournament Musings

noreply@blogger.com (dvdhwk) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 07:10:00 +0000

Hello all, with the GT quickly approaching, I have some issues I've been mulling over, and could do with some input. I get pretty long-winded at times, so just hang in there with me. Here we go...

Tournament T-Shirt
So I decided I want to do a Sons of Sek T-Shirt for me to wear at the GT. I get all my custom shirts from zazzle.com, and have been pretty satisfied with them in the past. I think I've decided on the general layout. It will have the Sons of Sek 3rd, 1st Company banner (here's the model) on the front and the pic a Son of Sek on the back with the text: "For the magister / His voice drowns out all others."

I still have some final prep to do for the images, but I'm torn between which shirt color to get. Uh-oh, Warhammer fashion emergency! So I have a little poll on the right hand side, tell me which one looks better, the Maroon or the Brown shirt.

Concerns about the Painting Score

So last year at the Vegas GT I got a horrible paint score, truly horrible. I took an all Slaaneshi force that has won multiple best painted's locally. Now I'm well aware that what might win a local competition might not do as well nationally. However, last year there were two painting judges for 40k, one male and one female. Apparently the female judge consistently scored armies lower than the male judge. Now maybe she got all the crappy armies, and the male judge got all the amazing armies, but its also possible that she just scored lower. She judged mine and several other armies of people that I know, whose armies deserved a much higher score.

Part of the problem was the really subjective standards that they had last year, and the fact that they awarded conversions more than painting. With that in mind, I decided to do a highly converted army this year. However, they released their painting guidelines and established what I think is a fairly balanced objective set of criteria that proportionately rewards both painting and modeling.

Here's the point... Even with the more objective criteria I'm worried that my army will get judged by the "one judge" (whoever that may be) who judges harsher than the others. I think that with my display board (assuming I get it done) I should conservatively earn about 35/40 points. Let's be honest, this isn't the best army I've painted, I've had to cut corners left and right. However I pick up a lot of points in conversions. I'm just concerned that a judge might not give me the full points for conversions (being candid here, I really think that this army deserves them).

Okay, really, now here's the point: What if I were to place a binder next two my army. On the front it has a nice spiffy title and pics, and says something to the effect of: look inside to see the building and painting process of the Sons of Sek. Then i would basically have color print outs of all of the RFTL blog entries that deal with the SoS.

If you were a judge, what would you think? Would you think, cool, and probably get a deeper appreciation for all the work that went into this army? Or might you think, what a tool. This guy reeks of desperation? Or something in between?

Holes OR No Holes?
I've started thinking about the display board I'll be taking. Last year I made a really nice display board - it was the kind with the holes cut out for the models, so their base is level with board. That tray is sitting in my garage right now and will probably never get used again, since I will never use that exact army composition again. So how big of a difference do you think it will make if I didn't cut the holes out this time around?

Here's what I think-
Pros:

Much less time to make a board without holes
Can be used for different permutations of the army, not just one list

Cons:

May not look as good, subsequently I'll earn fewer points
May take longer to set up the army without holes

Anything else, pro or con you can think of? Depending on how my schedule goes, I may be scrambling at the last minute anyways, and probably won't have time for the holes. Any thoughts?

Sons of Sek Progress Tracker
If you haven't noticed, at the bottom of the blog I started posting a visual tracking device to show how much is left of the current project and what I'm currently working on. I'll update it as I go along. Here's where I'm at right now:

And finally... 1st Platoon!!!
I finished first platoon in its entirety earlier. I mentioned before that I wanted to pull them all out together at once as a kind of reward. I'm pretty satisfied with them, and am motivated to keep going. Also either today or tomorrow, I'll post some closer pics of the recently finished platoon command squad bodyguards.

Sons of Sek - 1st Platoon Specialists

noreply@blogger.com (dvdhwk) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 22:02:00 +0000

1st Platoon (4 infantry squads and 1 command squad) are almost finished altogether. Last Friday I finished the Vox Operators, Weapons Specialists and squad Sergeants.

Vox Operators

Weapons Specialists

Sergeants

Late last night I finished another 9 lasgunners, and I'm working on 9 more today. Once they're done, all of 1st Platoon's infantry squads will be done.

I took 500 points with me to Hat's Games this last Saturday for "Learn to Play 5th." I got in 5 games against three CSM's, Eldar, and Tau. I very handily won the 4 non-annihilation games. The one annihilation game I played was against a Thousand sons army with two KP's against my 7 KP's. I would have wiped him off the board, but as soon as he got the 3rd kill point, it was moot. Oh well.

Ok, back to work. I can feel a "wall" coming up. I've got to power through!

Sons of Sek - Standard Infantry - Part II

noreply@blogger.com (dvdhwk) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 20:27:00 +0000

Here's 10 basic joe infantry squads. They're all members of 1st Platoon. Seven of them are from Squad 11 and three of them are from Squad 12. Same basic methods that I used to paint the rest of the infantry (see Painted Veterans). What was a nice surprise, was that these guys only took about 45 minutes each, compared to the 75 minutes to do a veteran. I figured that with build time and paint time, I have 160 hours worth of work left to do. Or about 5 hours a day (yikes) for the next 5 weeks (week 6 will hopefully be building a display board).

I think, unquestionably, the heads are big. But painted up, I don't think they look too bad. Umm, so they come from a planet that creates big heads as a mutation. Yeah, that's the ticket... just the other day. Seriously, I don't think it's too distracting.

At my local game store (Hat's Games down here in Tucson), they're doing "Learn to Play 40k" Saturday's, where we'll be doing escalating points to get a handle on 5th edition. To be honest, I'd rather just jump in at the higher points levels, but it's giving me little painting goals along the way.

For instance, this Saturday is 500 points, minimum of 1 troop squad. For me that would be 1st Platoon and a Sentinel. So... I'm going to try to get 1st Platoon painted before Saturday. That leaves me with 4 Vox Casters, 4 Sgt.'s, 4 Special Weapons, 3 Bodyguards, and 18 regular guardsmen.

Last night after I finished painting these guys, I put together the Vox-Casters. Today hopefully I can put together the Sgt.'s and the Special Weapons and get a jump on painting them. Unfortunately I still have to finish a final assignment for my internship. Tomorrow's my last day, then I can really dive in.

10 more down, 134 to go.

Sons of Sek - Standard Infantry - Part I

noreply@blogger.com (dvdhwk) — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 20:19:00 +0000

I've been making little to no progress these last couple of weeks. Since my wife got back from her trip to China, there's been nights out with friends, things to do around the house and just spending time together. Plus we were in New Mexico visiting my family for 5 days. When she was away, I was able to crank things out. But these last couple of weeks have proven very unfruitful. Tomorrow she goes back to work, and I don't go back to classes for another 3 weeks. I'm hoping I can really get some stuff done in the meantime.

It works out to just less than 4 models per day that I need to get done, if I want to finish before the GT. "4 models per day" doesn't sound so bad, but considering I have to maintain that for 30+ days is a little daunting. But anyways, on to the conversions.

The majority of my troops require this particular conversion, and it is based off the Cadian model, rather than the Chaos Warrior model.

As always I'm going off the above source picture. I've had to make decisions that provide a balance between approximating the source image and ease of reproduction over 130+ models.

I started with the legs, and began by removing the cargo pockets. Why? I don't know. I guess maybe with the armor plates it would look to busy. I also cut off the boot straps. Again no particular reason why.

Next were the extra armor plates for the knees and shins. With both I began by estimating how big they would need to be. I then created the plates in Adobe Illustrator. I took my base size and made two more plates that were smaller, and two more that were bigger. With these 5 different sized plates I test-fitted them to determine the correct size, and make any adjustments for width and height. When I got it just right I created enough in AI, and then printed them on manila folders.

Using a fresh x-acto blade I cut them out and formed them to fit before super-gluing them on.

The cod piece was made from the shovel blade from the Cadian Heavy Weapons team. I then took a tiny Khorne Icon from one of the newer CSM helmets and glued it on the blade. I then made molds and am casting enough pieces for the army. In order for the piece to fit correctly, I had to cut out a portion of the overhanging jacket.

The backpack was made from a particular CSM backpack. I simply cut at the blue lines. This way it can serve as a drop-chute, as well as matching the backpack worn by the Son of Sek in the source picture.

The extra shoulder armor was made using the same techniques as the leg pads. I probably should have done 2 layers to stay true to the source, but that would have been a lot more work.

So far, I'm pretty happy with the modeling. Hopefully when they're painted, I'll get a better idea of how closely they approximate the source image. I'm planning to get them painted tonight... we'll see.

Sons of Sek - Officers

noreply@blogger.com (dvdhwk) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 04:31:00 +0000

It's been more than a week since my last post. Things have been a little crazy around here, and I'm behind on my schedule. I'll get it all figured out, and I might be able to get caught up or at least nearly caught up next week.

But anyways, let's talk about my officers. So I needed my HQ (a Heroic Senior Officer) and 3 Junior Officers to lead my 3 Infantry Platoons. They would also use the Chaos warrior bodies as the basis of the conversion.

I wanted to make all of the officers stand out from the rest of the Chaos Warrior body models. The first thing I did was for the HSO. I decided I wanted him a little higher on a rocky level. I needed something flat, that I could glue the wallpaper I use on top of.

Making the HSO Stand Out

I grabbed some square bases and cut off the beveled edges. The plan was to form these up a bit and glue them together, to create my rocky raised platform.

I then carved them into more natural shapes within a certain range of each other. I also beveled their edges.

Gluing them together and putting the wallpaper on, I wound up with the above. It doesn't stand out too much now, but is more noticeable painted up.

All of the officers have mutated heads from the Chaos accessory sprues. I also gave them each the hand respirator mask. The HSO also has the Chaos star on his back, which will represent his refractor field. The HSO also has a bolt pistol, while the JO's have las pistols which are converted lasguns.

I figured that their power weapons would also make them stand out. But half way through painting the models, I realized that the JO's weapons didn't quite look sci-fi-ish enough. So I added some plasticard and guitar wire make them look like there was some sort of power pack attached.

Here are the finished products:

Chief Sirdar (Colonel) Sheram

I decided that my HSO should have a red cape, which would further set him apart.

Vice Sirdar (Lieutenant) Katesh

All of the JO's I decided should have a different colored cape, and so I settled on black. I gave them the same chaos script along the bottom of the cape that the HSO has.

Vice Sirdar - Winscar

Vice Sirdar Maggol

So there they are. I should note, that the hard line highlights on some of the models aren't nearly as drastic in person, they're much more subdued. Oh well. Off to finish modeling some joe schmo guardsmen.

Lord of the Rings Indy GT - Results

noreply@blogger.com (dvdhwk) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 00:13:00 +0000

This last weekend was the first ever Indy GT for the Lord of the Rings. It was a blast; the organizers (Tim and Dean) did a great job and provided for a great time. I'm really liking this game, I just wish there was a group that played it down here.

Edit - Here's the list I took:

Easterling Captain (HW/Shield)
Easterling Captain (HW/Shield)
Easterling Captain (HW/Shield, Armored Horse)
Easterling Warrior x14 (HW/Shield)
Easterling Warrior x11 (Bow)
Easterling Warrior x8 (Spear/Shield)
Easterling Kataphrakts x10

The Results

I wound up placing 3rd overall, and took home 2nd place for Best General. I was really pleased with how I did. Anthony, whose Uruk-Hai I painted and whom I convinced to play this game in the first place a couple of months ago, came in second and won Best General.

1st Game

I played John Long and his Grey Company led by Aragorn. The mission was Reconnoiter, which requires you to get more models off your opponent's deployment zone than he can get off of yours. The cavalry on my right flank dealt with the detachment ahead. My right detachment dealt with what was in front of them. My middle detachment acted as free safeties who eventually slowed down Aragorn down when his body guard were shot down. I got one model off (a dismounted cavalry) and managed to break the Grey Company (at 50% of starting strength - triggered this particular scenario's end) before Aragorn could get off the board.

Result: Major Victory

Game 2

This game was Storm the Camp, which ends when you have more models than your opponent within 12" of your opponent's deployment corner. If you do this and are not broken, its a major victory. I played Mike's Uruk-Hai.

I sacrificed my infantry to go toe-to-toe with his block of Uruks. This took pressure off of my infantry who only had to deal with some crossbow uruks and a handful of swords- and pikemen. In what turned out to be the final turn of the game I managed to get one of my cavalry to charge one of his pikemen in his deployment zone. His pikemen was in his deployment zone by about 1/2 an inch. I charged in such a way that if I won the fight (regardless if I killed the model) I would push the Uruk out of the 12" zone. I won the fight and won the game. It was kind of a phyrric victory considering I killed about 6 models and he killed about 18.

Result: Major Victory

3rd Game

This last game of Saturday was against Eric Carlson's Haradrim. He had three Hasharim (crazy Assassins) and the Witch King on Fellbeast - Yikes! The mission was Meeting engagement, where you have to get your opponent to 25% of their starting size. I thought I would have this game pretty handily since I almost outnumbered him 2-1, and he has a bunch of Defense 4 dudes. What I didn't count on was his ability to roll 6's to kill my cavalry like a champ. Once I closed with him, I had 3 out of 11 cavalry left.

That evened the odds quite a bit. I broke his force first but no one ran. Next turn he broke me, and his Witchking throws out a -1 Courage aura, which forced plenty of my models to run. On our last turn enough of his models and enough of mine ran away that we were both reduced to 25% at the same time.

Result: Draw

Game 4

No pic for this one. It was over before it started. This was against Anthony and his Uruk-Hai. The mission was Treasure Hunt. There's a marker in the middle of the table. You have to get a model in base with it, and on a 4+ the model uncovers the treasure. To win you have to carry the treasure off the board.

This game was over in 22 minutes. My cavalry reached the marker in two turns, my Captain on horse picked it up right away. Although he had to dismount to dig it up, and lost his horse from then on. I then won priority the next two turns and moved all of my forces back, Anthony conceded at that point, because no matter what happened in the next two turns I would be able to get the treasure off the table, and he would be unable to break my force.

Result: Major Victory

Game 5

This game was against the "Ringer." Frank flew in from Tampa and is a major player on the LotR tournament circuit; he brought his Mordor force. The mission was Contest of Champions, where you nominate a character who has to kill more models than your opponent's character does.

It was a great game, and Frank used his placement in the terrain to draw me in to some unfavorable positions. As the battle lines finally met I felt pretty good about the standup fight that would ensue had my Captain not been killed, but alas... His Wringwraith more than earned his points transfixing my captain (basically nerfing his combat effectiveness - allowing him to be easily surrounded and cut down). My captain died without killing a single model, and as soon as Shagrat (his nominated character) killed one Easterling, that ended the game.

I asked for some advice after the game, and got some good tips about how to better use my archers (I've known that I haven't been using to their full effectiveness for quite a while), and being more patient with my cavalry captain in the scenario. All in all, I think I learned a lot from that game and am hopefully walking away a better player.

Seriously... consider giving Lord of the Rings a chance. I consider myself a pretty hardcore 40k and Fantasy gamer, and LotR is really worth getting into.

I need to get back to working on my guardsmen. I'm visiting my family in Albuquerque right now, so I've planned to get behind schedule. I brought some stuff with me to build at least. I'll post some pics of my officers who I built the other night, but still need to be painted.

noreply@blogger.com (dvdhwk) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 09:05:00 +0000

Happy 4th of July Weekend everyone. I'll be celebrating my taking my Lord of the Rings Easterlings out for a spin at the first ever Indy LotR GT in Phoenix. My camera will be coming with me, and hopefully I'll remember to take pics.

I just added a third column. Please let me know if you're having problems viewing the page properly. Thanks.

Sons of Sek - Company and Platoon Banners

noreply@blogger.com (dvdhwk) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 00:57:00 +0000

In order to break up the monotony of the painting and also the overall appearance of 167 infantry, I would want several banners in the army. I decided that I wanted a company banner and a banner for each infantry platoon.

I decided early on that my army would be the 1st Company of the Sons of Sek 3rd Regiment ("The Magister's Fist"). So above is there Company banner, which says just that. As the 1st Company, their role is often as a spearhead or assault element (hence the "drop trooper" doctrine). The little stylized lightning bolts in the lower left corner represent that.

It was made from 2 Chaos Warrior banner poles. I cut part of one in half and glued it on to an intact one to add a little length. The flag itself is plasticard warped with a heat gun.

Back of Company Banner

A lot of the inspiration for this banner came from Ursarker Creed's banner. I wanted the front to be a little cleaner and less "chaotic" than an average Chaos banner, in order to reflect the drilled and disciplined nature of the Sons of Sek. I think the back of the banner makes up a little for the "chaotic" look with the script.

I knew I wanted to incorporate some kind of cross or St. Andrew's Cross into the design. I sketched and doodles for a while and came up with the top half of the Khorne symbol.

Picking the Colors

I knew it was going to be Black, Red and Ochre, I just couldn't decide on how those colors would be combined, so I made some quick flags using my paints on index cards. I never toyed with the idea of the "Khornate Cross" being black, only red or ocher. After seeing my examples I decided that the Khornate Cross should probably be red, and then eventually decided on the ochre border.

Background

Since the background would be black I began painting the entire banner black, working up progressive highlights of Vallejo German Grey, Dark Grey and Neutral Grey. Then I gave it a Chaos Black wash to smooth the transitions and take out some of the brightness.

Khornate Cross

Originally the cross was painted all the way to the edges using Mechrite. The top bars were originally solid, then I cut in with the black. I then added a black border, so there would be a black line between the red and the ocher border.

I then added the ocher border and highlighted up the red and ocher using my normal progressions. All of the symbols and writing were then painted on. I got a little eager in my painting, that I forgot to take pictures to document the progress.

Platoon Banners

The inspiration for these banners were taken from RonSaikowski's Banner Project: Imperial Guard, from From the Warp. Specifically the one below on the left:
The circled "3/1" on my banners denoted that they belong to the Sons of Sek 3rd, 1st Company. Nothing too complex with these banners, since they're essentially the normal Chaos warriors banners.

So that's all for now. 21 models done, 148 to go. I'm currently 2 days behind on my schedule, which is better because I was almost a full week behind last week. However I have to finish up the remnants for the Easterlings and Anthony's Uruk-Hai for the GT this weekend. So I imagine that I will start next week behind again. Oh well, can't be helped.

Skorne Army Showcase

noreply@blogger.com (dvdhwk) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 19:38:00 +0000

Here's a quick break from all of the Sons of Sek business (I just put together the 4 standard bearers and will be painting them tonight). I went to a Hordes tournament last Saturday. This was my first game in almost 2 years. It was pretty easy to get the hang of it back again.

The tournament had a small turnout, only 4 of us, so we only played 2 rounds. I won my first game (vs. Circle) on points 8-2. My second game was against the Trolls, and I was on the erge of wiping the entire army off the table when he charged his Warlock into my unit of Cataphract Arcuarii, who had the Death March spell on them (when one of them dies they get a free move and can make one attack with a boosted melee and damage rolls). He killed two of them who struck back in their death throes and finished him off, giving me the win.

In the end, I was the only person who went 2-0 so I won the tourney. Not bad for my first time out in almost 2 years! The Press Ganger running the tournament also let me know about a league that had just started that week at another shop just down the road. I went down right after the tournament, joined the league and got 2 games in (2 losses, but good games). I also got to meet a lot of players, which I've had a diffuclt time with since I moved down here a year ago.

I'll be going back Thursday to get some more league games in, but until then, back to work!

Lord Tyrant Hexeris

Titan Gladiator

Cyclops Savages

Cataphract Arcuarii

Praetorian Swordsmen

Sons of Sek - Veterans Painted

noreply@blogger.com (dvdhwk) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 07:59:00 +0000

Here are my 3 Veteran Squads. One with trip-flamers, two with trip-meltas.

Here's a closer look at the Vets. Any thoughts on the eyes? I decided to do pure white, with no pupils to give them a haunted look. Is it effective or distracting... possibly something else altogether?

In the Gaunt's Ghost books their armor is described as "ochre." For my interpretation of Ochre, I did the following:

Calthan Brown base coat
Tau Sept Ochre - overbrushed on the raised areas and lightly stippled in the crevasses
Desert Yellow highlight
Bleached Bone hardline

My squad marking system is somewhat simple, and is partially based off of the Cadian system. The command platoon is designated by "00." The Heroic Senior Officer's squad will be "000". I've envisioned that my Veterans are attached to the command platoon, working closely with the colonel (need to go back and find the appropriate rank designations for the SoS). As such, these squads are designated "003", "004" and "005". "001" and "002" are reserved for the special weapons squads.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with these guys, though they took longer than I had anticipated. I imagine that the bulk of the basic troopers who are cadian-based models will go a little quicker as there are some short-cuts I can take with them.

I have 17 models done, only 152 to go before September. I've moved some things around with my schedule in an effort to get caught up. So next up will be the 4 standard bearers (3 Platoons and 1 Company standards). I'm hoping to get these guys done by Sunday night. If I can do that, I'll be back on schedule.

Sons of Sek - Converted Veterans

noreply@blogger.com (dvdhwk) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:04:00 +0000

So I'm still a little behind on my schedule. But I think I can get caught up this week, and possibly ahead next week. I'm working currently on my 3 Veteran Squads. The bulk of my infantry we'll be Cadian-based with conversion. The Vets, Officers and officer Bodyguards will all be based on the WHFB Chaos Warriors.

I had to make 3 Lasgun Vets, 6 Melta Vets, 3 Flamer Vets and 3 Sgt.'s.

CSM Nub Arm

The Chaos Warrior body is two pieces, that includes the upper arms and sockets for the lower arms. I used CSM arms, cutting off the shoulder and upper arm, creating nubs to fit in the Chaos Warrior sockets.

Stock Lasgun

The standard lasgun posed a slight problem. The stock doesn't fit in the crook of the warriors arm, so I had to shorten the stock.

Modified Lasgun

Now its a little more compact, but still doesn't fit like it would on a normal guardsman. Notice the dirty aquila is gone.

Finished Lasgun Vets

Here you can see that even with the shortened stock, I still had to position the gun one handed, and I gave them a combat knife in the other hand (from the CSM sprue). Hopefully, this won't be too confusing with the Sgt.

Finished Flamer Vet

Same basic principles as before, except the flamer and melta make a better fit. Both the flamer and melta come from the CSM Raptor Assault Weapon Sprue. I think I bought the last 17 from GW when you could still bitz order them. They came with a melta, plasma and flamer on each sprue for $1.50 I think.

Sgt. Sword Inspiration

As always, I come back to this drawing for inspiration. I want all of the Sgt.'s in the army to have a sword that looks similar to the one above. I could only find metal ones that would be too difficult to get a hold of now, what with GW bitz services not being the same. By chance I came across the perfect plastic piece.

Sgt. Sword

I just happened to have 3 boxes of berzerkers laying around (that's what happens when you're devoted to Chaos). I found several sword in scabbards on the sprue that were the same basic shape (lower sword). I simply shaved off some of the detail and formed a sharpened blade. Looking at the picture now, I may go back and create the notch of the blade edge near the hilt.

Finished Sgt.'s

All of the Sgt's in the army will have horned heads like the figure in the drawing. This head was from the chaos Warrior box, and needed a rebreather mask. For the Sgt's, all of their rebreather masks will be in the shape of a hand (again like the drawing). This one actually came out the worst of the 3, but some creative shading during painting should clean it up a bit.

Well, that's it for now. I really like how these guys came out, and can't wait to get them fully painted up. I have the 3 flamers vets painted, and should hopefully get the 6 melta vets done tonight.

Sons of Sek - Sentinels Painted

noreply@blogger.com (dvdhwk) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 11:02:00 +0000

It's very late (or early depending how you look at it) so I'll make this quick. Here are my two "sentinels" for my Sons of Sek Traitor Guard Army. These guys took much longer to paint than I had estimated, and I'm a couple of days behind schedule. This week I'm supposed to be working on my 15 Veterans, and I think I can make up the time.

With these sentinels, I tried some different things with washes to avoid the standard drybrushed metal. It basically amounted to a 1:2:9 mix of Brown Ink:Chaos Black:Water with a drop of dish detergent to make the wash more viscous. Afterwards, I applied to subsequent Chaos Black washes, and then did a careful overbrushing with Mithril Silver on the edges and raised portions, and then decided to go back and do a Mithril hardline on certain conspicuous areas.

The bloodletter was painted going in progressive steps from Mechrite Red to Blood Red to Blazing Orange.

I had some issues matte varnishing these guys. I've been using the Armory Matte Varnish (I finished my last last can of the old formula of the good GW varnish on the Uruks), and its been tending to frost the models. I think it might be due to holding the can too close. I'll have to do some experimenting.

Note the banners. The Hand emblem is going to be the symbol of the Sons of Sek. There's a running theme with the Sons of Sek, where hands cover the mouth. It has something to do with the liturgy of the followers of Sek. Whenever he is named, everyone says, "Whose voice drowns out all others." Note the hand incorporated into the rebreather mask below.

The "3/1" signifies that my army is part of the Sons of Sek 3rd (The Fists of the Magister), 1st Company. The "1S" and "2S" signify that they are scout detachments of the 1st and Second platoons, respectively.

I've started building the Veterans tonight. Hopefully by tomorrow night I can have them fully built and converted, and maybe I can paint the 3 sergeants. We'll see.

Sons of Sek - Sentinels Conversion

noreply@blogger.com (dvdhwk) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 08:43:00 +0000

My new Sons of Sek army has two sentinels in the list, mostly for their improved comms upgrade to help with the rest of my army deep striking in. Rather than use normal sentinels, I wanted to create something that would "count as" a sentinel. With so many rank and file models in my army, I wanted some things that could help make the army "pop" as a whole visually.

There's no mention of the Sons of Sek using sentinels in any of the Gaunt's Ghosts books, so I've taken some license in coming up with these converted penitent engines. The closest equivalent in the Ghosts books would be the wirewolves found in Traitor General. In the book they were metallic constructs that contained daemons, and they were used by the occupation force as a type of alarm system, guarding small towns.

What I've built are large metallic constructs that are, for all intents and purposes, controlled by a bound bloodletter. I've carried over the theme of the wirewolves, without necessarily carrying over their appearance.

Here's the conversion process:

Removing the Purity Seals

As you can see, there are a number of large purity seals covering the model. My initial thought was to remove only the wax portion, thereby converting the purity seals into "litanies of hate." I decided against this, and instead removed them all, first with clippers and then with a dremmel.

Chains Covering the Purity SealsDespite using a dremmel to remove the purity seals, the affected areas still looked fairly rough. I decided to use jewelry chain that I picked up at Michael's Hobby and Craft to cover all of the affected areas.

Chain Close-Up

I used Gel Superglue to form rivets at the point where the chain is attached to the body. It looks messier in this picture than it actually is. Oh, and this

Creating the "Pilot"

I opened up my new Daemons army box and reached for the bloodletters. I was really impressed how they managed to fit everything for all 10 models on 3 sprues. I would have to remove the sword (which I might give to my army general, if the size is not too much of an issue).

Changing the Posture

As you can see in the top picture, the natural position of a Bloodletter is hunched over with its arms angled inwards. The middle picture shows a normal penitent engine pilot with its back arched and its arms spread out. The new bloodletter models do allow for little if any articulation, unlike most other plastic kits. As such I had to trim areas, and cut angles from the arms, legs and pelvis.

Greenstuffing Gaps

Changing the posture of the bloodletters left large gaps in the pelvis and shoulders. I filled them with greenstuf and sculpted the musculature of the missing parts.

Constructing the Pilot Mounts

This part was most troubling. I had intended to carve out the original pilots from their mounting. There were two problems with this method: 1) The bloodletters were too big, and 2) it would have taken too much effort to effectively remove the pilot. Instead a decided to create a crude plsticard frame that would be camouflaged by other pieces.

"Plugging In" the Bloodletter

I took left over bass guitar strings from my Pleasurereaper Baneblade conversion and plugged them into the sides and the back of the neck of the bloodletters. I also took more of my jewelry chain and wrapped it around the torso and limbs to look like he's bound to the mount.

Cleaning up the Mounting Cables

I added some greenstuff to the areas where the cables plug in, to make a more gradual transition from cable to "flesh." I also added another set of chains around the wrists that attached directly to the Sentinel's arms.

Constructing the Banners

In order to further set these up as center pieces of the army I decided to add banners. I made these banners using essentially the same method I used on my Thousand Sons dreadnought. I began by drilling holes into the back of the sentinels at approximately 45 degree angles. I took brass rods to form the banner poles, and used dragon heads from the Chaos Vehicle Accessory Sprue and used them at the banner pole tops.

I then used then cut a piece of plasticard to fit within the available height of the poles, and wide enough at the longest point. I then cut the ends at angles parallel to the poles, but left the plasticard a little longer than necessary, so that I would have material to wrap around the back of the poles. I also cut various parts of the plasticard to make the banner look tattered.

Warping the Banners

I grabbed my wife's heatgun. She used to use it for scrapbooking - I think for embossing, whatever that means. About two years ago I started using it for warping plasticard, and eventually I stopped putting it away with her scrapbook stuff, since I used it way more often than she did. Anyway, I just melted the plasticard around the poles and warped the banner itself. Once you heat an area, you have a few seconds to move and tweak it a bit. I just did this till I got an effect I was happy with.

Pilot Close-Up

Once everything started coming together, I realized that the bottom of the pilot mount was too exposed and looked crude. I went through my Chaos bitz box, and was surprised by what I found. I used the mount for a Havoc Missile Launcher from the Chaos Vehicle Accessory sprue. It's placed on its side with the flat end that's supposed to mount onto a vehicle out front. This provided a perfect spot to mount the Icon of Khorne also from the Chaos Vehicle Accessory Sprue.

"Sentinel" - Front

"Sentinel" - Right

"Sentinel" - Rear

"Sentinel" - Left

Overall, I'm quite pleased with how the two sentinels turned out. I will start painting them this weekend, though I have a lot of gaming planned. I'll probably wind up finishing painting them on Tuesday, which will put me 2 days behind schedule already. It took way longer to build these guys than I had expected. I'm currently in the process of priming them. The body and arms are not yet glued to the legs. I pinned them so I can paint the top and bottoms separately, and then I'll glue them at the end.

I think I spent about 16 hours total converting both. I think painting them both will only take 8-10 hours. Here's hoping.

Strategies for Painting Armies

noreply@blogger.com (dvdhwk) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 04:30:00 +0000

Inspiration for the Sons of Sek

Let's face it, there are quite a bit of unpainted armies out there. And some of these armies stay unpainted for quite some time. There could be a lot of reasons for this: slow painting ability, real life gets in the way, no incentive to paint, drastically prefers gaming to the modeling/painting aspect of the hobby.

I'm predominantly a tournament player. I am a TP for a couple of reasons: (1) I don't get to game that often, and playing in tournaments allows me to get 3 guaranteed games in a day; (2) I enjoy the competitive aspects of gaming; (3) I like that most tournaments focus on the hobby as a whole, which why I tend to disfavor the 'Ardboyz format.

I think that as a dedicated tournament player I have an incentive to paint (as well as the intrinsic incentive to see me complete a painted army), and I'm forced to place an equal value on painting as gaming (which I already intrinsically have). So for me those two reasons for not getting an army painted are dealt with. In many ways, these are the easier reasons to deal with. The other two reasons I gave are best dealt with a plan.

I lot of hobbyists don't have a plan for their army. They buy something here and there. They paint one figure from a squad, before moving on to half-painting a dreadnought, and then they decide to paint a figure from WHFB. Next thing you know, they've been playing with a partly primed, partly assembled, minimally painted army for months or years at a time. I'm no exception to this. I currently have a 'Nid army and a Skaven army that are in similar states. But I also 6 fully painted armies of substantial size between 40k and WHFB, that at one time or another have each won at least once a Best Painted award in a tournament (that doesn't include my Tau - but I don't like to talk about them).

Since I got back into the hobby 6 years ago, my Thousand Sons and Lizardmen were my first armies. With them I had no plan, and I spent a lot of time being distracted, and it took quite a while for me to place fully painted armies of them on the table. But since then I've made plans, and it has made me more efficient.

1. Set a goal. When do you want this army completed by? Is there an event coming up? Do you just want to set an arbitrary date?
What point value do you want to have done? Do you want just enough models for one list at that level, or do you want options?
To what degree do you want them painted? Minimum to be tournament legal? Enough to get a good painting score? Enough to give them a shot at winning best painted?

2. Plan your purchases. Ideally you'll be able to buy everything you need at once. This, obviously isn't always the case. When I used to work at Imperial Outpost, this was easier for me to do. Also if I got a bonus from work or just sold stuff on ebay, or whatever. But usually, most people can only buy a little at a time. If that's the case, know exactly what you have to purchase for your army, and stay committed to a purchasing plan. Don't get distracted by new stuff for another army. Stick to the plan!

3. Create a Schedule. This needs to be realistic.
3a. Figure out how much time you can devote to building/painting on an average week.
3b. For every unit in your army, estimate how long it would take to paint them (this is easier with the more experience you have). For example, I know that when I'm batch painting I can paint one 40k infantry mini in an hour. So a squad would take me 8-10 hours depending on the size. Even if your estimates are off, this is creating a framework that will help you spread out your workload.
3c. Compare the total estimate of hours to complete the army to the total time you can give per week over the length of the project. Adjust your completion date if necessary. Alternatively, if you can't adjust the completion date, can you increase the amount of time you spend per week? If this still isn't enough, are you willing to sacrifice quality? If you're not, then you may need to make the hard decision that the project just can't be done on time.
3d. Assuming you've adjusted your schedule as needed, do your best to stick to the schedule. I often over estimate my figures to give me some leeway.

4. Use an assembly line method. If you build and paint one model at a time you will have a better over all product. In the case of small, elite armies, this method is ideal (see Ron Saikowski's Emperor's Children). However, I prefer to use an assembly line or batch building/painting method. This enables one to paint more things more quickly, and if it is done right without much loss in quality. This is ideal for a bunch of rank and file models.

This can be done in one of two ways: 1) by squad/unit, or 2) by like models. Some people will do an entire squad including special weapons and sergeants. Usually this approach is fine. However if you're doing a horde army, or just an army with a higher than average model count, consider building and painting like models at a time. Paint all of your plasma gunners together. Paint all of your Sergeants together. This is best accomplished if you have the entire army purchased before you start.

If you use this method, know how many models you can get painted in one or two sessions. I usually try not to paint more than 8 models at a time. Also, keeping a simple pallet is helpful.

5. Keep things interesting. It can be hard sticking to a schedule. Sometime you just have to push on, sometimes you need to take a break, and other times just switching things up can make a difference.

If you want to get started playing right away, then by all means build the army first and get some games in. However, sometimes building and converting models might be a nice change of pace from painting models.

Also if you've been painting nothing but grunts for a while, switch things up and paint a character or a vehicle.

Stay entertained while you paint. Listen to music or watch movies. Also paint with other people at the local shop, or have a painting party at your place. Time is your biggest enemy, boredom is the second biggest.

The Plan in Action
1. Set a goal.
I want to take my Sons of Sek traitor guard army to the Vegas GT on September 6th. Including this week that gives me 13 weeks to paint 179 models. Each model will be heavily converted, and the plan is to paint them to a level that will earn them a high painting score. I'm prepared to cut corners on some of the rank and file guys, and spend extra time on some center pieces.

2. Plan your Purchases
I knew that I would not be working on this army until the summer, but I started making my purchases for the army back in the winter. I'd by a box of Cadians here and there. So now that I'm ready to start, I have everything I need, including material for conversions.

3. Create a Schedule
3a. I'm planning on devoting about 20 hours a week to building and painting this army. I'm in a fortunate position to do this, since I don't have classes, and the only work I'm doing is a 20 hour a week internship.
3b. I have the following models to build and paint:
1x Heroic Senior Officer - 5 hours
3x Lieutenants - 12 hours
12x Body Guards - 15 hours
4x Standard Bearers - 16 hours
3x Veteran Sgt's - 4 hours
6x Veteran Melta Gunners - 8 hours
1x Veteran Plasma Gunner - 2 hours
2x Veteran Flamers - 3 hours
3x Veterans - 4 hours
2x Demo Charges - 2 hours
4x Flamers - 4 hours
12x Sgt's - 16 hours
3x Melta Guners - 3 hours
9x Plasma Gunners - 9 hours
12x Vox Carriers - 12 hours
90x Joe Schmo Guardsmen - 90 hours
2x Sentinels - 16 hours
TOTAL - 221 Hours
3c. I've estimated that I can spend 20 hours over 13 weeks, which gives me a total time available of 260 hours. That should be well enough time to get this project finished. It also gives me some leeway in my schedule, and allows for errors in estimating. So next I'll schedule out the weeks, trying to stay as close to 20 hours worth of work a week (I'll front load my schedule).

Week 1: Sentinels
Week 2: Veterans
Week 3: Vox Carriers, 8x Joe Schmo Guardsmen
Week 4: Standard Bearers
Week 5: 16x Joe Schmo Guardsmen
Week 6: Officers
Week 7: 24x Joe Schmo Guardsmen
Week 8: Body Guard, Flamers
Week 9: 24x Joe Schmo Guardsmen
Week 10: Sgt.'s
Week 11: 18x Joe Schmo Guardsmen
Week 12: Melta, Plasma, Demo Guardsmen
Week 13: Leeway week, or build display board

Steps 4 and 5 will be documented here on the blog.

That's quite a tall order. It's definitely doable, but will take a lot of effort.

There's nothing like seeing two fully painted armies battling it out on the table top. Sometimes you can't avoid playing with unpainted armies (you might be playtesting, or you need to get some practice games under your belt while you paint the army). But it'd be great to see more games with painted armies, and sometimes direction and planning are what's needed to accomplish that. Let's see if I can follow my own advice this summer.

Uruk-Hai Project Almost Done

noreply@blogger.com (dvdhwk) — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 07:20:00 +0000

Well, this project is nearing completion; above is a shot of all the models in the army. I've put in a lot of time since I started this last Wednesday (06/04), and I'm pretty sick and tired of Uruk-Hai. But I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Tomorrow I have 6 more Uruk swordsmen planned, and then all that will be left are the five extra crossbow Uruks, once Anthony gets the missing pieces to me.

My wife is currently in China with work for the next two weeks, and I've been alone with the pugs here at home painting. What have I been doing while painting? Well, watching a lot of television and DVD's. Here's what's been keeping me entertained.

Jericho (Season 1) - I just finished all 22 episodes yesterday, and I loved it. I can't wait to get my Season 2 DVD's in the mail
Freaks and Geeks - I'd been planning to watch this for some time, I highly recommend this critically acclaimed show
The Classic Romero Trilogy: Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead - I had never seen any of these originals. I was very impressed with the first two, Day was a disappointment
Dawn of the Dead (2007) - This was probably my 4th time watching this, what a great flick. I also re-watched all of the special features. There's a great news broadcast extra where the late Richard Biggs (Dr. Franklin from Babylon 5) is the anchor, and Bruce Boxleitner provides the voice of the President.
American Me - Great movie, directed by and starring Edward James Olmos (Admiral Adama from the new Battlestar Galactica). Really good movie about gangs in East L.A.
My Family, Mi Familia - This was also really good with Jimmy Smits and Edward James Olmos. It follows three generations of a Mexican-American family in East L.A. It reminded me a lot of stories of my family on my father's side.
8 Films to Die For: Mulberry St. - This was one of the yearly Horrorfest Selections. It includes both Rat Zombies and Zombie Rats... yes, there is a distinction. In some ways I was really impressed. There was a lot of character development and it was very well presented. The movie fell apart when the Zombies showed up - not a good sign for a zombie movie.
8 Films to Die For: The Deaths of Ian Stone - This was a great movie, I liked it a lot. It was kind of like a horror version of Quantum Leap. Well done, with great special effects.
This weeks episode of Battlestar Galactica - I watched this twice already (in fact I've watched every episode of the season at least twice so far). It's some of the best sci-fi on television ever, and it's one of the best dramas on television... period. This was a great episode. I'm both excited and sad for the ending. 11 episodes to go!
Today's Meet the Press - God, I love politics. This show comes on so ungodly early on Sunday's, good thing for Tivo. Great roundtable today discussing the wrap-up of the democratic campaign, and the outlook for the general election. It looks like this year is an open field, unlike the last 2 presidential elections, where it basically came down to one state.

I'm actually looking forward to going to my internship tomorrow, just to get out of the house.

I'll probably post some thoughts later this week on army painting - how to plan, how to stay motivated and stick the plan, and how to get the army finished. That's all for now.

New Project: The Fighting Uruk-Hai

noreply@blogger.com (dvdhwk) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 08:38:00 +0000

With my Easterlings temporarily on hold until I get the models I need, I've started working on a commission of Uruk-Hai for Anthony. Originally, the plan was to be done with the Uruk-Hai by the beginning of June, but life happens. Slated for the painting board is the following:

2 Uruk-Hai Captains
14 Uruk-Hai w/ Sword and Shield
16 Uruk-Hai w/ Pikes
11 Uruk-Hai w/ Crossbows
5 Uruk-Hai Berzerkers

Over the last two nights I finished the Captains, the Berzerkers and 7 of the Sword/Shield Uruks. All of them are done using the same basic steps.

Armor / Weapons / Shields:
Over a black base coat
Tin Bitz (Drybrush)
Boltgun (Drybrush - light coverage, except on the edges)
Mithril (Drybrush - edges only)

Flesh:
Dark Flesh
1:1 Dark Flesh:Tanned Flesh
Tanned Flesh

Loincloth / Straps:
Scorched Brown
Bestial Brown

Misc:
Teeth - Rotting Flesh
Painted "Hands" - Wattered down Skull White
Hair - Chaos Black; 1:1 Black:Codex Grey; Codex Grey

Uruks with Sword and Shield

Uruk Captains

These were done a little differently from the other Uruks. To denote that these two are Captains, I used Shining Gold on the armor at the step I would normally have used Boltgun. These are also the only non-Berzerkers to have the White Hand of Saruman painted on their helmets.

Berzerkers

Tomorrow, I'll get to work on 6 of the Crossbowmen (I'm currently missing arms for 5 of them). The plan is to have everything done (minus the 5 crossbowmen) by day's end Monday.

Easterling Project Finished... Sort of

noreply@blogger.com (dvdhwk) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 23:04:00 +0000

In the last week, I finished painting all of the Easterlings that I need among those models I already own. This includes 5 more archers, 5 Kataphrakts, 1 Standard Bearer, 2 Captains on foot and 1 Captain on Horse.

I didn't take pictures of the archers, since they're more of the same as the others I did before.

So what I have painted is:
16 Swordsmen
11 Archers
8 Spearmen
5 Kataphrakts
2 Captains on Foot
1 Captain on Armored Horse
1 Standard Bearer

I still need to paint a Captain on foot to represent my mounted captain in case his horse gets shot, another 4 swordsmen or so for dismounted Kataphrakts and another 5 Kataphrakts.

Unfortunately, I had some problems getting the models I needed from my shop down here in Tucson, so I'm hoping to get them from Imperial Outpost, brought to me by Anthony when he comes down.

So for now, I'm moving on. Next up are Anthony's Uruk-hai. I'm currently 9 days behind schedule in my summer painting plan, I hope to make up two of those days this week, we'll see.

Game Depot Store Championships - Mini Battle Reports

noreply@blogger.com (dvdhwk) — Wed, 28 May 2008 20:22:00 +0000

This last weekend I played in the Game Depot store championships, which I had qualified for in the previous weekend's tournament. I actually won the qualifier, finishing 2-0-1 out of a field of 32, and had the battle points for Best General. Boy was I surprised when I finished 0-2-1 in the championships!

There were 8 competitors, in fact the top 8 from the qualifier round. So these were are all great tournament players, of course the competition would be tougher. Only battle points counted; no painting and no sportsmanship scores. I played 3 great opponents and had 3 really close games - in fact, some of the closest tournament games I've had in a long time.

I ran the same list I ran the weekend before:

Chaos Space Marines - 1500 Pts.
HQ 1: Daemon Prince – Mark of Slaanesh, Wings, Lash of Submission
HQ 2: Daemon Prince – Mark of Slaanesh, Wings, Lash of Submission
HQ 3: Greater Daemon
TROOP 1: 8x Noise Marines – 8x Sonic Blasters
TROOP 2: 8x Noise Marines – 8x Sonic Blasters
TROOP 3: 10x Lesser Daemons
ELITE 1: 10x Chosen – 3x Plasma, 1x Melta, 1 Aspiring Champion w/Power Fist, Mark of Chaos Glory
ELITE 2: 10x Chosen – 3x Plasma, 1x Melta, 1 Aspiring Champion w/Power Fist, Mark of Chaos Glory

Game 1:
Opponent: Black Templars
Terminator Marshall
Terminator Chaplain
Both with a Term Command Squad (6-man, 4x Lightning claws, 2x Thunder hammers)
Command was riding in a Landraider Crusader
8-man Assault Squad
6-man Las/Plas Crusader Squad
8-man Crusader Squad
Venerable Dreadnought w/Assault Cannon

Mission: Alpha Recon (Most scoring units in enemy deployment zone wins)
Result: Black Templar Win (2-1 scoring units)

I got first turn and did some damage to the two crusader squad using lash and shooting. The crusaders moved closer to my princes. 1 was in charge range the other was not. The DP who could charge did so and whiffed killing only 1. The other DP had to stay put, close to some of my other squads (1 NM squad, 1 Chosen Squad, which was a problem. This meant that the Command Squad would be able to get multiple charges off, instead of having to pick one or the other.

The command Squad rolled in and killed the DP and killed most of the NM's, who held. On the other side of the board, the Assault Marines and the Dread assaulted the DP and killed it, the DP only managing to take out the DCCW.

My Greater Daemon popped out of the chosen squad by the command squad and killed the marshall. The following round she killed some of the squad before going down herself. The command squad was right at half and remained in my deployment zone until the end of the game. On the other side of the board, my Chosen and NM's and the recently summoned lesser daemons made quick work of the Dreadnought and Assault Marines. The Landraider Crusader was really the MVP who managed to whittle down most of my squads to less than half. My remaining Chosen Squad took several shots at the Landraider, but couldn't scratch it. In the end, my Daemons were in the deployment zone and he high-tailed his LRC into the DZ, and his command squad was already there.

In retrospect, I should have used that Chosen squad to take one more wound off on the command squad, making them not scoring. Instead I tried to run them to the deployment zone while taking pot shots at the LRC. I should have known that the squad would never reach the DZ as a scoring unit.

All in all, it was a really fun, close game. I'd be lying if I said I didn't want the win, but I had a great game nonetheless.

Game 2:
Opponent: CSM
1x Lash Prince
6x Chosen (4x Melta, 1x LC's)
8x NM's (1x Sonic Blaster, 1x Blastmaster, 1x Champ with Doom Siren)
8x NM's (1x Sonic Blaster, 1x Blastmaster, 1x Champ with Doom Siren)
8x Raptors (IoK, PF)
2x Vindicators
5x Havocs (2x ML, 2x AC)

Mission: Gamma Take an Hold (Extra VP's for scoring Units wholly in the center)
Result: CSM (Opponent's) Win - 1500 VP's to 1227 VP's

3 Lashes on the board made things interesting. I went first and killed his chosen squad thanks to lash and plasma fire. I wiped out a NM squad again, using the same trick. He responded by nearly wiping out two of my squads with vindicators and lashing a noisemarine squad nearer his raptors. This was the game deciding factor, we both agreed after. His raptor squad was down to 2 men, and then just the fist for 6 rounds of combat or so. He held like a champ despite me pouring more than enough attacks into him. Meanwhile he killed 3 or 4 marines a turn.

Eventually my one of my DP's killed a Vindicator, and one of my princes killed his prince, who died a turn later to the Havocs. My daemons never came out because the icons were gone. My Greater Daemon killed the other Vindicator and was still scoring in the center until the last turn, when I just couldn't make invulnerable saves against the Havocs.

In the end I was wiped from the board. All he had left was the Havoc squad and his non-scoring NM's, which just put him over the margin for a win. Again, another really close game, and very enjoyable. Another great opponent.

Hmm, looking back, I wonder if he should have gotten the points for the Daemons. I thought I remember reading somewhere that if they don't come in the opponent doesn't get the VP's. With the WHFB rules floating in my head, plus 5th Ed. rules, and Adepticon FAQ's, I could definitely be way off on that one. Either way, wouldn't have helped me to win overall, so not a big deal, still would like to know for the future. Still a blast.

Game 3:
Opponent: Tau

Commander w/ 2 Bodyguard – 2x Burst Cannons, 3x Missile Pods, Frag Burst Weapon
Crisis Team (3) – Plasma/Missile Pod
3x Broadsides w/ Shield Drones
2x Piranhas – Fusion Blasters, Decoy Launchers, Seeker Missiles
12x Gue’la (Human Auxilaries) – 2x Pulse Rifles, Marker Light
12x Gue’la (Human Auxilaries) – 2x Pulse Rifles, Marker Light
14x Fire Warrios – Marker Light, Target Lock
3x Stealth Suits – 2 Gun Drones
Sniper Drone Team

Mission: Omega Annihilation
Result: Draw

I had played Brian and his Tau in the qualifier round (you can read the Battle Report here). The mission and the deployment in that game were so heavily in my favor (It's not a good thing when 2 lash princes can set up 18" away). He conceded after turn 3. He was definitely looking for some redemption, and I think he got it.

With this being omega, my princes would have to come in from reserves, and then from the board edge, unless I wanted to DS them, which I didn't think would be a good idea. Standard exchange of fire for the first turn. Everything of his came in on the second turn, and a decent amount of my models began to drop. Neither of my princes came in my second turn, but my Greater Daemon did (horrible luck since I was so far back, she would get shot at quite a bit). I charged her and a unit of Chosen into one of the Crisis units that had DS'ed way of course. I strung out my Chosen, so my powerfist wouldn't get to go that first round - the idea was to not wipe them out so we would be locked during his turn. It became quite comical as I was rooting to whiff on my attacks, and he was rooting to fail his own saves. Unfortunately for me, I wiped them out and he was able to put some wounds on the Greater Daemon (who would go on to take almost 2 rounds of fire - saving the rest of my army from it - until dying); still I made a disproportionate amount of Invulnerable saves. I also charged the command squad with my NM's in the area, and tied them up for the rest of the game until the Crisis suits broke after several rounds of combat.

On my third turn one of my DP's managed to come in, as did my daemons. One of my Chosen squads was about 5 inches away from the Broadsides, and the daemons were 3 inches away from the Firewarriors (both in Difficult Terrain). I rolled for the daemons: 2-2. They sat there. I rolled for the Chosen: 1-1. They sat there and took a bunch of return fire, but were still strong enough to assault the next turn. Eventually my other DP came in and was inconsequential, as was a unit of NM's on the right flank, who essentially hid all game.

We called it early, since it was pretty clear it was going to be a draw. In the end his Gue'la squads were untouched, his piranhas were scoring, and his Sniper teams were untouched. The firewarriors were still scoring but we figured they'd be dead or running after another turn. We also figured that he would be able to get my NM's who had just killed the commanders squad to below half (having to cause 1 wound). So in the end I was left with 1 Daemon Prince, 1 Chosen squad below half, 1 Daemon Squad, and 1 full Chosen squad, 1 NM squad.

This had proven to be an exhausting day, with 3 incredibly close matches. I had a great time, and Patty and Dave (the owners of Game Depot) did a great job hosting and running the tournament. I will definitely be competing again next year.

Oh, and on a side note, I brought my camera to take pictures. I forgot each games, only to remember as I was cleaning up. I swore to take pictures the next game, only to repeat the cycle. Arghhh. That explains the inclusion of the Photoshop rush job above (boy did she die horribly all 3 games).

More Easterlings Finished (Bowmen and Swordsmen)

noreply@blogger.com (dvdhwk) — Thu, 22 May 2008 08:38:00 +0000

With school over for the year, I've begun putting more time in on my summer projects. The first project is my Lord of the Rings Easterlings, the majority of which I hope to have finished by the end of the weekend.

Tuesday night I finished 8 swordsmen, and just now I finished 6 Bowmen.

You can find steps on how I painted these here.

I still have the following left to do:
6x Bowmen
6x Kataphrakts
4x Spearmen
2x Captains on foot
1x Banner
12x Swordsmen

Well, just looking at this list, I'm not very optimistic I can get this all done this weekend, especially since I will be playing in a 40k tournament on Saturday. I'll more than likely need next week to complete these as well. Then I'll have to try and make up some time while working on Anthony's Uruk-Hai.

Army Showcase: Slaaneshi / Undivided Warband

noreply@blogger.com (dvdhwk) — Wed, 21 May 2008 05:44:00 +0000

Round 1 - Chaos vs. Chaos
Round 2 - Chaos vs. Tau
Round 3 - Chaos vs. Tyranids

As promised, I've got some pics below of the Chaos army I took to last weekend's tournament at Game Depot. Here's the list again first:

Chaos Space Marines – 1500 Points

HQ 1: Daemon Prince – Mark of Slaanesh, Wings, Lash of Submission
HQ 2: Daemon Prince – Mark of Slaanesh, Wings, Lash of Submission
HQ 3: Greater Daemon
TROOP 1: 8x Noise Marines – 8x Sonic Blasters
TROOP 2: 8x Noise Marines – 8x Sonic Blasters
TROOP 3: 10x Lesser Daemons
ELITE 1: 10x Chosen – 3x Plasma, 1x Melta, 1 Aspiring Champion w/Power Fist, Mark of Chaos Glory
ELITE 2: 10x Chosen – 3x Plasma, 1x Melta, 1 Aspiring Champion w/Power Fist, Mark of Chaos Glory

Greater Daemon

Daemon Prince 1

This was made out of the Fantasy Mount of Slaanesh and the 40k Daemon Prince.

The mouth piece was inspired by one of the Emperor's Children heads. The Doom Siren was made out of polystyrene tubes and the warp amp from the chaos vehicle accessory sprue.

The wings were an afterthought, after Daemon Speed was invalidated by t.he newest codex

The whip was made from brass rods twisted together, and tipped with part of a mace from a Chaos Marauder. Looking at these close-ups I can see that some touch-ups are needed.

Daemon Prince 2

Chosen Squad 1

Chosen Squad 2

I'll be making a post later in the week showing some of my other Black Legion banners, with directions on how I made them.

One of the Noise Marine Squads

Lesser Daemons

This is pretty much the standard army I've been running since the new codex came out. At 1750, I add another Chosen Squad. At 2000 I'd throw in 3 Obliterators.

1500 Pt. Battle Report (3rd Round of Tournament)

noreply@blogger.com (dvdhwk) — Tue, 20 May 2008 22:50:00 +0000

Round 1 - Chaos vs. Chaos
Round 2 - Chaos vs. Tau
Army Showcase

Alright, folks, here's the final battle report from last weekend's tournament.

Game 3 – Tyranids
Mission: Cleanse II (Whoever has more table quarters wins; NO VP’s)
Deployment: 18” Wedge Deployment
Battle Point Results: 12 – 9 (my favor)
Opponent’s Army:
Hive Tyrant – TL-Devourers, Venom Cannon, 2x Tyrant Guard
10x Hormagaunts
10x Hormagaunts
8x Genestealers – Extended Carapace
8x Genestealers – Extended Carapace
2x Dakkafexes
2x Sniperfexes – Extended Carapace

Note: All references to "Termagaunts" should be read as "Hormagaunts."

Alright! Double Lash vs. Nidzilla: The battle of the cheese. This was a great game, and I played yet another great opponent. Here’s our deployment.

He got first turn and moved up as indicated above. His shooting was either out of range or did no damages this turn.

My turn one, I moved up as indicated. My left DP lashed a sniperfex towards my chosen. Both squads opened fire and killed it. My left NM’s opened up on the Tyrant and Tyrant guard, hoping to cause one wound, and I got it! The NM’s on the right moved up at caused several wounds to the topmost termagaunts. My DP on the right planned to lash one of the dakkafexes to keep it out of range and LOS next turn, but rolled an 11 for his psychic test! Uh, oh. This failure cost me the Quarter 2. Also incidently I had caused more casualties to myself at this point than he had caused thanks to overheating plasmas. Can’t stand the heat, don’t fire a plasma gun.

His turn 2, he pulled back his remainig sniperfex, afraid of the power of the chosen. The Tyrant stayed put, and the lower squad of genestealers came across the Level 3 rocky area in the center. Both dakkafexes closed on my DP on the right and opened fire. You can’t really stand up to 16 S6 TL’ed shots, re-rolling to wound. The DP went down, and the NM’s nearby looked at me wondering how they were single-handedly supposed to hold that flank.

My turn 2, both the greater daemon and the lesser daemons came in. I brought the lesser daemons off the right chosen squad, and also summoned the greater daemon off of that squad’s aspiring champion. The left NM’s held position, and the right NM’s pulled back, trying to put the building in between them and the dakkafexes, but also to get LOS on the genestealers in the rocks. My chosen moved up towards the Tyrant. All of the NM’s opened fire into the genestealers and managed to kill four. The DP then lashed them back on the other side of the rocks, delaying them another turn. The chosen opened fire into the Tyrant and his guard, killing the guard and leaving 1 wound on the Tyrant. The daemons charged the Tyrant, made their invulnerable saves and then caused 4 wounds. He rolled his 2+ save, and there was a “1” among them. I consolidated the daemons to the right to try to be a buffer between the approaching genestealers and the chosen or NM’s.

His turn 3, the genestealers came back over the rocks and had enough movement to charge the weakened chosen squad (the one without the AC), bypassing the daemons. They wiped out the chosen and consolidated into the greater daemon. Elsewhere the other Nid shooting was ineffective, save the dakkafexes who were very deadly. Thankfully LOS issues made it so I would only lose 2 models that turn, even though I had failed many more saves. Also, the top genestealers decided to start heading across the rocks. A squad of termagaunts in Quarter 1 charged by daemons, who again made all their saves, and killed 5 of the termagaunts. They were locked in combat.

My turn 3, I continued moving the right NM’s away from the dakkafexes. All of the NM’s opened up into the generstealers in the rocks, causing 3 wounds. The chosen continued to move up, but had no real targets. With the end of the tournament round quickly approaching, I moved the remaining DP into a position to be able to contest Quarter 1. I also lashed the new squad of genestealers away, but it wouldn’t be enough. In combat the first squad of genestealers wounded by greater daemon once, but then she quickly wiped them out and moved up. The daemons killed all but one of the termagaunts who held, thanks to the Warriors’ synapse.

His turn 4, he moved the dakkafexes up. One held in the building to grab Quarter 2, the other moved up alongside the building into Quarter 4. They both opened fire and killed all but one of my right NM’s. The sniperfex moved back again, and had little effect with shooting. The remaining genestealers, the warriors, and the remnant from the topmost termagaunt squad all charged the daemons, and wiped them out. We received word that the round ended in the middle of this turn, and so my next turn would be the last turn of the game.

My turn four, I saw how to get the win. I had to bring the genestealers in Quarter 3 below half (I just needed to cause 1 wound). I also had to lash the dakkafex in Quarter 4 back into Quarter 2. I also needed to assault the couple of termagaunts with my chosen and slingshot off of them with a massacre roll. If I could pull all of this off, Quarter 1 would be contested, he would control Quarter 2, but I would control both Quarters 3 and 4. Everything worked perfectly. I even charged the greater daemon into the termagaunts just to make sure I would wipe them.

We then were informed that when a unit straddles 2 quarters you randomly determine which quarter its in. My NM’s who were predominantly in Quarter 4 were straddling the line. I was under the impression that you counted them in whichever quarter the majority of the unit was in. I let my opponent roll for it: 4+ they were in Quarter 4, 3- they were in Quarter 3. He rolled a “3”. So the end result was that Quarter 4 was uncontrolled, and we each had one quarter to the game was a tie. I managed to get all of the bonus points and still won the tournament.

I understand that the whole game requires a certain amount of luck. Still, I found it a little annoying that the draw came down to that one roll. I guess I’m nitpicking, I still won the tournament, and I had a really great close game. In fact I had 3 fun games against 3 great opponents and I won a battleforce. So I really shouldn’t complain (but for those of you who know me, would you expect any different?). Oh and an odd little fact, I never once had to use either of my two powerfists all tournament. Weird, huh?

Going into this tournament I had a feeling that at this points level, most armies wouldn’t be able to compensate for 2 lash princes. I got lucky and didn’t get paired against any elder or SM librarians. Even if my lash were shutdown, dealing with 3 MC’s at 1500 points is not something that most armies can handle. I’m really beginning to dislike lash, because it’s such a crutch, and I don’t even use it in any of the overly abusive ways. It’s just so cost effective. So too are the Daemon Princes and the Greater Daemon. I hate spending 410 points on 3 HQ’s, but the problem is that each one is such a good deal. One can be dealt with by an opponent, but 3 becomes a huge problem. I’ve tried running lists without them, but I get so much more bang for my buck with them. This army will probably be retiring for a while after the next Adeptus Arizona Tournament Tracker event.

Later tonight I’ll post some pics of the army, and maybe some Easterlings that I finished last night.